Thread: Coticule dulling razor?

I am in the habit of probing the edge with a HHT prior and after the fist stropping of a blade that comes off the hones. Coticule finished edges usually step up 2 points on my scale (scale can be found in a post I made a few days ago in a thread abou the HHT and in a article soon to be published in the wiki).
I have noticed there is a difference in how much you the edge will respond to the strop, between various finishing hones. Coticule-finished edges have always shown the most dramatic improvement, compared to other finishers I tried (The Chosera 10K, my Nakayama, BBW/water, DMT-EE are the ones I tried for jumping straight to the strop)

Bart.

Originally Posted by Bart

I am in the habit of probing the edge with a HHT prior and after the fist stropping of a blade that comes off the hones. Coticule finished edges usually step up 2 points on my scale (scale can be found in a post I made a few days ago in a thread abou the HHT and in a article soon to be published in the wiki).
I have noticed there is a difference in how much you the edge will respond to the strop, between various finishing hones. Coticule-finished edges have always shown the most dramatic improvement, compared to other finishers I tried (The Chosera 10K, my Nakayama, BBW/water, DMT-EE are the ones I tried for jumping straight to the strop)

Bart.

Interesting finds Bart. That is right in line with what I've found thus far. Do you find that even before the stropping, straight off the coticule, that your edges are super super sharp to the TPT? As sharp, or sharper, than, say, after your Chosera 10k, nakayama, bbw/water, or DMT-EE? Or do they feel slightly different/not as sharp to the TPT until stropped?

FWIW, last night I honed up my most recent ebay win - a nice wade and butcher celebrated hollow ground ~7/8" smiling blade. The first smiling blade I've honed. It was/is in nice shape so didn't take long to clean up to my liking. I added one layer of tape and got to honing.

The bevel set pretty quickly on the DMT 1200, and then I moved to the BBW with slurry. I did 40ish laps with the slurry, then thinned it down for another 10 or so, then thinned it to water for another 10 or so. It was getting very sharp at this point. I went to the coticule with water only for 30 laps, trying to get gradually lighter and lighter. I did not notice the phenomenon on this razor that I did with the henckels full hollow. The edge did not seem to be getting duller, but was getting sharper on the coticule. I was very happy with the edge on this one at this point, so I stopped. I probably should have shaved straight off of it this way, but I had just finished my new balsa paddle strop over the weekend, and pasted it two nights ago with Chris L's chromium oxide, so it was begging for a test drive. I did 10 light laps on it, then moved to 100x smooth cotton and 100x red latigo. This blade was shaaarp. Popping hairs on my leg better than any other razor I've had. In fact, it's really the only razor I've ever had that popped hairs in the HHT too. I think the heavy weight of the blade really makes a difference in the HHT, at least it seems that way for me.

Anyway, the resultant shave this morning was incredible. This razor is now my new favorite. I love the heft of the blade. The whiskers just ran away from this thing scared. I've nicknamed it Chuck Norris, lol.

That's it. I thought I'd share my coticule success story. So, to make a long story short, I'm now at the point of not knowing exactly what to make of this coticule. It's clearly going to take plenty more razors and time to fully understand where it will fit in.

Originally Posted by pjrage

Interesting finds Bart. That is right in line with what I've found thus far. Do you find that even before the stropping, straight off the coticule, that your edges are super super sharp to the TPT? As sharp, or sharper, than, say, after your Chosera 10k, nakayama, bbw/water, or DMT-EE? Or do they feel slightly different/not as sharp to the TPT until stropped?

As far as the TPT is concerned it never gets "grabier" for my touch than straight of the DMT-E (1200grit!). As the edge smooths out on the next hones, the TPT becomes less sticky. The increasing keenness makes up for the decreasing jaggedness, but it doesn't quite feel the same. As with all the tests, you need some pre-knowlegde about at which honing level the blade is, and "read" your results accordingly.
Everything I read on this thread, suggests that you are picking up those finer points quite rapidly.

Best regards,
Bart.

Originally Posted by Bart

As far as the TPT is concerned it never gets "grabier" for my touch than straight of the DMT-E (1200grit!). As the edge smooths out on the next hones, the TPT becomes less sticky. The increasing keeness makes up for the decreasing toothiness, but it doesn't quite feel the same. As with all the tests, you need some pre-knowlegde about at which honing level the blade is, and "read" your results accordingly.
Everything I read on this thread, suggests that you are picking up those finer points quite rapidly.

Best regards,
Bart.

Thanks again Bart. That's great to know that the TPT isn't really supposed to get stickier. I think I'm starting to find that out on my own anyway. Honing my feel for the TPT if you will. I guess there's a feel for each sharpening stage that everyone needs to discover on their hone, *ahem*. (I've been waiting to use that one since I started here, heh. I'm probably not the first, and I might have forced it, but whatever!)

Thanks for listening/reading. I do think I'm picking up on this pretty fast now. A big part of it is splurging all my results here. Even if no one reads it, it still seems to help me by getting my thoughts in line and forcing me to really analyze what's going on.

It's good to see that you found your way to enjoying the Belgian!